


It's Not Too Late

by maderi



Category: Overwatch (Video Game)
Genre: Alcohol Abuse/Alcoholism, Angst with a Happy Ending, Courage, Happy Ending, Heartache, Hope, Idiots in Love, M/M, Memories, Reaper | Gabriel Reyes is a Softie, Requited Love, Shrike Ana Amari
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-25
Updated: 2018-12-25
Packaged: 2019-09-27 11:54:43
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,291
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17161541
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/maderi/pseuds/maderi
Summary: Looking back, Jesse should have known. The cryptic wording, Gabriel's hints.... Jack's farewell.He knew better now and he'd move heaven and hell to find Jack again. And once he does...





	It's Not Too Late

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Charlie-Greenland](https://archiveofourown.org/gifts?recipient=Charlie-Greenland).



> This is my Mc76 secret santa 2018 gift to (tw)Charlie-Greenland :-)

“Jesse, wait...” Echo called after him, “what are you going to do?”

The small snicker that left his lips fondly, threw him for a couple of seconds before he could gather his thoughts. 

“I’ve got some business to attend to.” He replied, dipping his hat in a farewell. 

Throwing his leg over Ashe’s bike, Jesse sat down firmly on the worn leather seat. It had been a long time since he had last ridden Ashe’s beauty, but sitting across here now, Jesse couldn’t help the same boyish giddiness that overtook him the very first time he had strode across her beautiful back. Looking back, Jesse had to laugh. So much had changed since then, yet, nothing really had. 

“Say hi to the monkey for me.” Jesse called over to Echo, laughter still on his voice. 

“Monkey?” Echo retorted humorously. 

“Scientist,” he scoffed affectionately, “whatever.” revving the bike, before kicking off.

He had a long ride ahead of him, weeks on the back of a wild beauty before he reached his goal. With the intel Sombra had provided, he’d hopefully hit jackpot this time around. Letting his thoughts run away with him Jesse thought back to the last day he saw the old man. 

~  
Swiss winters were the worst. Jesse tightened the serape around his shoulders, folding his arms around his chest as he searched the empty corridors for the Strike Commander. Jack had disappeared after the Christmas dinner, leaving everyone with merry holiday wishes and a bright smile. He left Gabriel to take care of the rest, whispering something to his...lover.. brother.. before they hugged and Jack walked off. Jesse had never quite gotten a hold of the nature of their relationship.  
Gabriel had walked over to him some thirty minutes later though, urging him to go find Jack, smiling softly as he pushed him in the direction Jack had walked off in. Jesse hadn’t the faintest clue of where Jack had walked through, throttling through one corridor, seemingly longer than the other, in search of him. 

Jesse was about to give up when he caught sight of greying blond spikes behind one of the couches in the common room. Slowly, he approached Jack, not sure if the older man wanted to be alone or not. The lights in the common room were turned off, the only light provided by the full moon through the huge floor-to-ceiling windows that framed the northern wall, giving a breathtaking view of the alps.

“Sir?” Jesse uttered softly. 

Jack’s head turned around, a stern face that softened when steel blue eyes landed upon his face. The older man smiled, cocking his head to invite Jesse to sit with him. It made Jesse antzy like his skin became alive and his chest filled with something tingling. 

He knew he had it bad for the strike Commander, had been hopelessly in love with him since early childhood. The posters of Overwatch’s finest a constant source of awe for him as a child. Growing older, he’d recognized that his feelings of awe had molded over to infatuation. As a teen, he’d dug up old newspapers of Commander G. Reyes and his second J. Morrison. 

Finding these posts weren’t actually that hard. Gabriel and his team had brought the world victory over the omnics in the war. He’d entered a hot minefield only to emerge victorious. Jack closely by his side. Jesse had just about swallowed his tongue as Gabriel had captured him at one of Blackwatch’s Deadlock raids. He just about bit his tongue off when John “Jack” Morrison had entered the interrogation room with Reyes. 

Jesse smiled at the memory, shaking his head softly as he thought about how fast time really did pass by. Sitting down beside Jack, Jesse put his arms around his knees. The sight before him really was breathtaking. But the incredible warmth radiating off of Jack distracted his train of thoughts. They were sitting so close. 

“Really is something, huh kid?” Jack mumbled, almost more to himself than to Jesse. 

The affirmative grunt that left Jesse’s throat, immediately made him feel like an imbecile. But then again, trying to act as if he had ‘sailed the seven seas’ never worked to impress the older man. 

Time flew by as they sat behind the couch in complete silence. Jesse’s mind buzzed like a Colibri bird’s wings though. Thoughts of the last few months raced through his mind. Memories of Rialto, of his, pretend holiday in London, but most of all, of all the trouble it had caused Jack. The higher-ups were riding Jack’s ass hard, threatening to court marshal him. Jesse didn’t know what to do. 

When Jesse woke up a few hours later, he was shocked to find that he was held against a warm and solid chest, strong arms wound tightly around him as a stubbled jaw rested on top of his head. Jack’s scent was incredible this close-up, and Jesse couldn’t help the lungful he stole as he burrowed closer and deeper onto Jack’s chest. 

The strong arms that were curled around him, tightened, pulling Jesse even closer. Warm puffs of air ghosted through his unruly hair when Jack burrowed his nose into his hair, and for once, Jesse blessed whoever had convinced him to shower that day. 

By the time Jesse woke up again, the walls of his own bedroom met his eyes. Confusion settled for a couple of minutes before Jesse’s eyes shot open. Jack must have carried him through the halls of the Swiss headquarters, all the way to his room. Looking down, Jesse saw that his duvet was pulled up. Closing his eyes, Jesse groaned as he pictured what he must have looked like when Jack tucked him in. 

A ghost sensation crossed past his forehead and for a few minutes, the memory was muddled, refusing to be pulled up for a closer viewing. When it opened, Jesse swallowed air, coughing until his eyes watered. 

Jack had brushed away the hair across his eyes, before leaning down to kiss Jesse’s forehead as he whispered a soft ‘Goodbye, Jesse. Take care of yourself.’. 

Stepping out of bed, Jesse saw that he had an urgent message from Strike Commander J. Morrison blinking on his Tv screen. Opening it and reading its content made the soft fluttering in his stomach drop though. 

In the message, Jesse had orders to leave Switzerland before noon, had direct orders to hide away, to deny every knowledge of Overwatch and Blackwatch. His mission was to be an outlaw, on the run, until the time was right once more. 

Fury clouded his vision. Confusion, anger, hurt and sadness flashed by faster than he could register. He grabbed his gear and set out to find Jack, but in search of the Strike Commander, Gabriel’s solemn face met him when he crashed through Jack’s office door. 

“I see you’ve read your orders, McCree.” Gabriel says as he folds his arms behind his back. 

Gabriel’s brows are drawn down in an unrelenting frown, his lips whitening by the sheer force of tightness. He doesn’t look pleased, not at all. Something more alarming than his orders pops into Jesse’s mind, but at the moment, he had been unable to decipher them. 

The cryptic words that had been shared. The calculating stares and clever fingers of Gabriel. It had all clued him in on something that was bigger than him, bigger than them, than Overwatch. At the time that followed, he’d been too heartbroken to understand them. 

The following day, Jack Morrison had died in the explosion that hit the Swiss headquarters, leaving Jesse truly alone once more. 

~

Jesse shook his head as he stepped off of the pretty lady’s back. Her pretty red paint job glittered in the moonlight, taking his breath away for the umpteenth time that week. Jesse smiled, how much he’d missed this beauty. 

Walking across the sand, Jesse looked up at the temple in front of him. It was a huge-ass building. How anyone had managed to rise it all those years ago, Jesse had no idea. Yet, all this time later, it stood proud. It had witnessed many wars, had withstood their many attempts of ruin. In a way, its beauty faults made it that more magnificent in Jesse’s eyes. 

“Why am I not surprised to see you here, Jesse.” A voice he hadn’t heard in over a decade, pulled him out of his thoughts. 

“Well I’ll be damned, Ana. Not as dead as presumed, I see.” Jesse smiled, the grin stretching wider by the second. 

“It is good to see you, my love.” Ana replied before pulling him into the best hug he had received in a long time. 

Her scent reminded him of home. Of downtime spent with tea and foreign cookies. It reminded him of a youth where he was loved. Where he’d been something for someone. 

“You are looking for him, are you not?” Ana asks, still holding onto Jesse like a vice. 

“Yes, ma’am.” Jesse nods in the crook of her neck. 

“So you know then?”

“Yes, ma’am. Took me a while to get out of my depressed stupor, but once I got my head straight, stuff wasn’t addin’ up. Not how Gabriel and Jack taught me anyway.” He said, voice gone rough with emotions. 

“He is on the north side.” Ana added, letting go of him. 

“Thanks.” Jesse nodded. 

“But Jesse...” Ana’s voice held an emotion he couldn’t place. “He is... he is not what he used to be. Not anymore.” Her voice broke on the last word. 

Understanding what she meant, Jesse nodded his thanks and headed towards the northern wing inside the temple, a new set of nerves settling like lead in his stomach, heart racing as if looking for a way to escape him. 

Jesse could smell him before he reached the northern wing. His nose has long since grown sensitive towards the smell of alcohol. Years of misuse, of drowning his sorrows had made him a bloodhound. 

He wasn’t ready for the sight that met him though. The room, shadowed in darkness and sparsely decorated, was drowned in darkness, the light of the lamp long gone. Beside the makeshift cot in the darkest corner of the room, empty bottles laid strewn around. Then, by the window, a silhouette he’d know anywhere stood silently, unmoving. 

“A decade ago, that same moon shone upon us.” Jesse started, pleasure shooting through him at the surprised tightening of Jack’s shoulders. 

“Mmh..” Jack grunted, continuing to stare out the window.  
“I woke up the morning after, alone, never to see you or anyone again.” He continued, bathing in the satisfaction Jack’s flinch gave him. 

“Outlawed. Disowned. On the run.” Each word drew another flinch from the older man. 

“I was in New York when the news hit. Overwatch Strike Commander John “Jack” Morrison dead, murdered in a catastrophic explosion, by Blackwatch Commander Gabriel Reyes.” Jack’s body was visibly shaking as Jesse continued, his anger fueled by the older man’s reaction. 

“S-stop.” Jack stuttered. 

“I was heartbroken. I’d lost everything, everyone, for the third time in my life.” Jesse’s brows furrowed as anger and frustration kept rising. 

“Jesse...” His name is uttered almost wordlessly, like a rush of air from numb lips. 

“You left me to fend for myself.” Jesse bit out, tears springing to his eyes. He wiped them away angrily. 

“Why didn’t you trust me? Why couldn’t you just... Why Jack, why?!” The emotions hanging onto his words finally made the other man turn around and Jesse’s heart stopped. 

Jack’s face was scarred, two deep flares marring his still beautiful face. The steel blue eyes were red-rimmed, fat tears falling from them every now and then. Jack looked like a ghost of the proud sunshine leader of Overwatch. 

His hair had gone silvery white, leaving the blond behind. He looked tired, so tired. Immediately Jesse felt bad for letting his anger take hold of his judgment. 

“Jack... I...” Jesse’s voice softened.  
He walked over to where Jack stood, unsteady hand raised to wipe away the tears still falling heavily. Jack leaned his face into the palm of Jesse’s hand once he’d wiped away the tears. Cold, long fingers came up to hold firmly onto Jesse’s wrist, Jack’s face nuzzling deeper, an almost inaudible whimper leaving his throat. 

Jesse’s other hand came up to brush away Jack’s little tuft of hair, holding his hand to his forehead, softly pushing backward. Jack’s face left his hand, his fingers tightening even more around Jesse’s wrist, holding on for dear life.

“Look at me, sweetheart.” Jesse whispered. 

Long moments passed by before wet, red-rimmed blue eyes slowly opened to look back at him. Jesse swallowed loudly, his tongue feeling too big for his mouth, his throat too dry. 

Instead of the words that won’t leave his mouth, Jesse leans forward to capture Jack’s thin, chapped lips beneath his own. It’s their first kiss, a bare touch of lips. But through the contact, words they never dared to say, emotions that never quite found their way out, poured through. The kiss as sweet and innocent as their adoration for each other was. 

The kiss grew deeper, heavier and before long, they were both panting in each other's arms. Breaking the kiss, Jesse rested his forehead to Jacks, smiling goofily. Taking a better hold of Jack, Jesse pulled him to his chest, Jack’s pliant body following willingly. 

“I’m here now, love. I’m here.” Jesse whispered, kissing Jack’s forehead the same way Jack had done a decade ago. Jesse wouldn’t let Jack go now that he’d found him. They would find Gabriel again and they’d put a stop to this lengthy mission. 

And then... then, he would take Jack far away from everything.

**Author's Note:**

> Hope you enjoyed this little thing.
> 
> Merry Christmas!


End file.
